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AIPAC leaders warn Netanyahu of ‘crisis of faith’ among U.S. Jews with freeze on Western Wall agreement

June 30, 2017

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Three American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) leaders reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we have lost the incentive to act for Israel” and of a “crisis of faith” among American Jews in the aftermath of the freezing of the Western Wall agreement.

Outgoing president Lillian Pinkus, her successor, Mort Fridman, and managing director Richard Fishman also said at the emergency meeting Thursday that activists and donors have threatened to stop working with the AIPAC over the controversy, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Thursday evening.

The leaders spent about a day in Israel and left Thursday night after their meeting with Netanyahu, The Times of Israel reported.

AIPAC has not commented on the meeting.

On Wednesday, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which represents more than 50 national U.S. Jewish groups, in a letter to Netanyahu said that a lack of unity between Diaspora Jews and Israel over the Western Wall agreement “could lead to an erosion of support.”

On Sunday, the Israeli government voted to suspend most of the compromise passed in January 2016 by the Cabinet dealing with the status of the non-Orthodox section of the Western Wall. The compromise would have expanded the non-Orthodox prayer section south of the main Western Wall plaza, created a shared entrance to all prayer areas and appointed an interdenominational council to oversee the non-Orthodox section.